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Growth in Europe’s startup scene has been driven by the tech powerhouses of Germany and the UK, with countries like Sweden, Portugal and the Netherlands also gaining ground with their rapidly expanding tech hubs. Away from the main players, however, exciting stuff is happening in Italy.

Italian boost to European startup scene/Photo credit:Pixabay

The Italian economy was one of the worst hit during the global financial crisis and it has continued to struggled in recent years, but this hasn’t deterred its die hard entrepreneurs from doing their bit and generating interest and growth in the country’s technology startup sector.

Like many European countries that were left devastated by recession, with high unemployment rates and little in the way of new jobs, the most enterprising Italians decided to create their own by becoming self employed.

The Italian government has also thrown its support behind the startup sector. Invitalia, a group owned by the Italian Ministry of Economy, was set up to fund projects across the country. It has launched a $100 million fund, split between the government and private investors, aimed at investing in Series A rounds with sums of $500,000 to $1.5 million.

Italy’s tech startup scene is also getting some corporate backing from some of the world’s biggest tech brands, including Cisco, which recently signed an agreement with the Ministry of Education, University and Research to provide training to teachers and students through the Cisco Networking Academy. Hot on its heels came an announcement from Apple that it will be locating its first European app development centre in Naples.

High on Italy’s tech hub wish list is a lot more interest from global investors, and a startup ecosystem that is on a par with those of Lisbon, Munich and Stockholm, but in the meantime, Italian startups are starting to get noticed by the rest of the world.

Lyrics database site MusiXmatch was founded in Bologna in 2010, and today has 30 million users singing the seven million lyrics that can be found on its site in 38 different languages. The company has secured more than $10 million in funding from investors that include Roberto Condulmari, Kairos Legacy Partners, and United Ventures. MusiXmatch has also developed a number of mobile apps that enable users to listen to music while accessing the lyrics. A new app called Clip lets users create short (up to 20-second) videos, and sync them to a track.